Duke's Mason Plumlee may play at Wisconsin

DURHAM - Freshman center Mason Plumlee, who has missed Duke's first six games with a broken wrist, may return for Wednesday's game at Wisconsin, team spokesman Matt Plizga said Monday.

Plumlee's brother, sophomore forward Miles Plumlee, said Mason went through a full practice with the team Monday. Mason Plumlee suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist during practice on Nov. 11.

The injury didn't require surgery, prompting coach Mike Krzyzewski to say Plumlee might be out for weeks rather than months. Plizga said team medical personnel will monitor Plumlee's progress after practice early this week.

Barring complications, Plumlee probably will dress and play in the 9:15 p.m. ACC-Big Ten Challenge game at Wisconsin, Plizga said. Plumlee is a 6-foot-10 McDonald's All-American who was named a likely starter by Krzyzewski before preseason practice started.

Junior guard Nolan Smith said he has seen Plumlee's spirits improve as the date of his return to practice became closer. Miles Plumlee said Mason's return will bring another dimension to the Duke offense.

"He's big," Miles said. "He can finish inside. He's athletic. We can run the ball through him and (he can) pass. When he's on the floor, it's a whole other person we can go to."

Ken Tysiac

Krzyzewski jabs Gottlieb over 'athletic' comment

You know basketball season is hitting its stride when Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is jousting with the media over treatment of the Blue Devils.

Following Duke's 68-59 defeat of Connecticut in the NIT Season Tip-Off final Friday, Krzyzewski was asked if the win answered ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb's questioning of the Blue Devils' athletic ability. Krzyzewski showed his sarcastic wit with his response.

"He should be an expert on alarmingly non-athletic," Krzyzewski said of Gottlieb, formerly a pass-first point guard for Oklahoma State. "So I'll have to take a look at that a little bit closer because it comes from an expert who actually knows what it feels like to be alarmingly non-athletic.

"Actually we're pretty athletic; we're just not as athletic as Connecticut. (Kyle) Singler is a really good athlete. Lance (Thomas), Miles (Plumlee). Jon (Scheyer) is not leaping tall buildings with a single (bound), but he's a really good athlete. But I wouldn't call us like, this athletic team, but we're not amazingly non-athletic. And I would rather not get into a discussion with Doug because I have respect of his stature and he should have his arguments with people of similar stature. That would be a good thing."

Although Krzyzewski hit that softball question out of the park, Gottlieb made a legitimate point. He just overstated it a bit. Because of the stature of its program and coach, Duke has an overwhelming recruiting advantage over most schools.

So it's surprising to see that schools in the ACC such as Clemson and Florida State have a collection of guys who probably move their feet more quickly and jump higher than Duke's.

It's true that Scheyer and Brian Zoubek aren't going to win many foot races with other guys who play their position in the ACC. Also, Singler doesn't move laterally as fast as a lot of the small forwards he will guard this season.

But Nolan Smith and Miles Plumlee are as athletic as anybody else at their positions. Lance Thomas has the size and quickness to guard just about any position on the floor, and Mason Plumlee will add to Duke's athletic ability at center when he returns to the lineup.

So the Blue Devils are hardly a bunch of stiffs.

The most important thing about Duke, though, is that it has three players in Singler, Scheyer and Smith who all are among the best players at their respective positions in college basketball.

Singler and Scheyer will never throw down a 360-degree dunk on a breakaway, but they're highly skilled and smart and always play hard. Yes, Duke could struggle when it plays a freakishly athletic opponent like Kansas or Kentucky.

But any team would. On most nights, the Blue Devils will have enough athletic ability to win as they head into Wednesday night's game at Wisconsin in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge with a 6-0 record.

Ken Tysiac

UNC notes: Ol' Roy unhappy with empty seats

CHAPEL HILL -- Most of the tickets for UNC's 80-73 win over Nevada on Sunday night were sold, a team spokesman said.

But the Smith Center appeared to be less than three-quarters full, and only half-full at tipoff, a rather embarrassing turnout for coach Roy Williams' 600th victory.

And Williams noticed.

"Six hundred wins, I've been very lucky,'' Williams said. "I've been at two great institutions, I've been at places that really are passionate about basketball. I wish some of our fans who weren't here tonight would get a little more passionate and get their rear ends here. That was discouraging at the start of the game. But I love those, the ones that were here. The other ones, I think I should take a camera shot, and anyone who wasn't here tonight — stop them at the door if they try to come in for Michigan State [on Tuesday]. Tell them I sold their dad-gum ticket."

LOSING THE TIE: Williams may have to go back to the mock-turtleneck look for the next month or so, until he can get rid of the sling on his left arm that he had to start wearing after his Tuesday shoulder surgery. He began the game in his customary shirt-and-tie, but had lost the neckwear by halftime, probably because it was bugging him with the hefty arm contraption.

-- Robbi Pickeral

Heels coach Williams has shoulder surgery

North Carolina coach Roy Williams will be wearing a sling on his left arm for the next four weeks after undergoing surgery Tuesday to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder, the school announced.

He suffered the injury in early October when he slipped on a wet step at a golf course during a charity event.

The surgery lasted 90 minutes, Williams returned home later in the day, and he expects to return to work later this week. He should be on the bench Sunday when the 11th-ranked Tar Heels play Nevada, according to the news release.

The rehabilitation on his shoulder is expected to last several months.

-- Robbi Pickeral

ACC honors Duke's Smith, Ga. Tech's Favors

GREENSBORO -- Nolan Smith of Duke and Derrick Favors of Georgia Tech have captured the weekly honors in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball.

Smith was named player of the week after averaging averaging 22 points, six assists and four rebounds as the seventh-ranked Blue Devils took victories over Charlotte and Radford.

On the week, Smith shot 56 percent from the field, including 60 percent from three-point range.

Favors earned the rookie of the week award. The 6-foot-10 freshman forward averaged 14 points and seven rebounds while shooting 81 percent to lead the Yellow Jackets to wins in two of three games in last week's tournament in Puerto Rico. -- Associated Press

AP poll: Duke, Clemson up, UNC down

Syracuse was so impressive in the 2K Sports Classic that it made one of the best entrances ever into The Associated Press' college basketball poll.

The Orange, who beat California and North Carolina by an average of 19 points in winning the tournament at Madison Square Garden, went from unranked to No. 10 on Monday, the third-best jump-in in poll history.

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Heels, Wildcats to play in Puerto Rico next season

North Carolina will be packing its bags the week before Thanksgiving next season, too.

The Tar Heels will be one of eight teams participating in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off; they will play Nov. 18, 19 and 21.

They will be joined by Davidson, Hofstra, Minnesota, Nebraska,, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Western Kentucky.

Tickets will go on sale next summer.

-- Robbi Pickeral

Duke faces familiar foes in New York

Duke will face a familiar foe in the NIT Season Tipoff semifinals on Nov. 25 in New York - and it's not just Herb Sendek.

With a 52-49 defeat of Texas Christian on Tuesday that ended long after midnight on the East Coast, Arizona State advanced to the meeting with Duke. Sendek, the former N.C. State coach, credited an ex-Duke player with carrying Arizona State against TCU.

Center Eric Boateng, a former McDonald's All-American who played just one season with the Blue Devils before transferring to Arizona State, posted career highs with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Arizona State wasn't nearly as dominating in its second-round game as Duke was in a 101-59 thrashing of Charlotte. But Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said the 49ers might have been more competitive if he'd had some practice time to prepare them to adjust their uptempo pace and play at a slower tempo.

As N.C. State fans know (for better or for worse), Sendek is a master at playing at a slow tempo. And he has time to prepare, plus a big man in Boateng who will be eager to prove himself to his former teammates in New York.

Ken Tysiac

Wake's Aminu is ACC player of the week

GREENSBORO - The Atlantic Coast Conference has honored Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu and Miami's Durand Scott.

The ACC on Monday named Aminu its player of the week while Scott is its top rookie.

Aminu averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 64 percent in the Demon Deacons' two season-opening wins.

Scott had 10 assists in an 83-53 rout of North Carolina Central — the most by a Miami player in three years. -- Associated Press

Duke's Mason Plumlee fractures wrist

Duke's big lineup just got smaller.

Freshman Mason Plumlee, the athletic, 6-foot-10 center who was on track to possibly start for the Blue Devils, is out indefinitely after suffering a fractured left wrist in practice Wednesday, the school announced.

The injury will not require surgery and will be evaluated weekly by the Duke medical staff.

"We are confident that he will make a full recovery," coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. "Mason is going to be a very good player for us and we look forward to him getting healthy and returning to the court."

Plumlee is a McDonald's All-American who averaged 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots in exhibition wins over Pfeiffer and Findlay. Duke begins the regular season at 7 p.m. Friday against UNC Greensboro.

Ken Tysiac